Celtic Warrior

Celtic Warrior, 2010. Corel Painter XI and hand sketch.

This was entered into a little weekly challenge called 'Character of the Week' from a great website called Conceptart.org. Here is they write up they did for it:

"The Celt remembers very little of his homeland any more. Though he was fifteen when he was captured and sold into slavery, his memories of his time before Rome are so few and so fleeting that he wonders sometimes if he merely dreamed them.

His home, for the last ten years, has been the largest ludi - or gladiator school - in all of rome. And he, their prize pupil.
Though maybe once he railed upon his captors, it has been a long time since he has thought of any other way of life than the sword, the bow, and the chariot.
For the last three years, he has been an Essedari - a war chariot fighter. His chariot is his prize possession - even if technically he doesn't own it. He has spilt so much blood onto it that it is closer relation to him than any living person on the entire planet, and he loves it enough to prove it.
Though he often fights on foot, especially for the one-on-one battles, he and his chariot are now so famous that Rome would be devastated if he did not at least use it as a backdrop for every battle.
Today, outfitted in all the splendor his keeper could manage, he fights for the emperor himself.
Note:
This does not have to be a historically accurate chow, especially since there are no pictoral references for the Essedari. So keep to the spirit, but you don't have to keep to the letter!"

So I based the character off of a photo I found of Roy Keane that looked like he was kissing something in his hand. It reminded me of when soccer players score a goal they'll sometime kiss their ring, a tribute to their wife. Since the prompt mentioned he missed his homeland, I thought he might be tributing his victory to his homeland by kissing a necklace medallion.